It’s easy to fall into complacency.
If we don’t have to struggle to make some desired result happen, why bother?
We’re comfortable…and isn’t comfort a good thing?
In many ways, I’m very comfortable.
I have a roof over my head. I never have to struggle for my next meal. I have a business where I can choose my own hours.
It’s pretty damn comfortable from a relative perspective, and I’m grateful for it.
The problem I see with comfort is that it doesn’t inspire necessary action.
You see, at any moment I believe that I can lose everything I have that makes me comfortable.
Yes, this may be an extreme and pessimistic perspective, but I’m pretty sure that the universe doesn’t give a flying fuck about me (there’s a book with this title, and I agree with its sentiment).
So if I lost everything in my comfortable state, how would I cope with trying to recover?
If I didn’t know what it was like to be uncomfortable, the struggle would probably be more than I could handle.
As such, I’m trying to force myself into uncomfortable situations every day.
One example of this is networking.
I’ve hated that word for as long as I can remember. Not just because it makes me uncomfortable as a natural introvert, but also because everybody salivates over its value.
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
If I had a dime for every time that quote was used…well, you know the rest.
But who’s to say that it isn’t true?
Who am I to say it isn’t true if I’ve never really tried?
I didn’t have my first business cards until last year.
I’ve only ever attended 1-2 conferences/meet-ups in my life.
I work at home and barely interact with anybody, aside from my team members, clients, and weekly mastermind group.
I’m pushing myself into the zone of discomfort though, at least as it pertains to networking.
I’m attending Craft + Commerce at the end of the month, a conference designed for bloggers, artists, and internet entrepreneurs.
I recently updated my LinkedIn profile and connected with people I’ve worked with in the past, both of which are things I basically had never done.
I also started using an app called Shapr, which is kind of like Tinder and LinkedIn had a baby.
Basically, I’m doing things that I’ve always rejected in the past, simply because they make me uncomfortable.
But guess what?
Entrepreneurship is really uncomfortable.
So why not continue to seek out the discomfort?
I’m going to keep this at the forefront of my mind on a daily basis.
We’ll see how it goes.